Redesign This!
by The Whore of Babel
Summary: *movie-verse* Tony seeks help from an old friend when the miniaturized reactor doesn't work as well as planned, but things aren't like they were. Tony/Pepper. Completed!
1. Part 1

Title: Redesign This!

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Tony Stark/Pepper Potts

Disclaimer: I don't own Pepper Potts or Tony Stark (although I wish I did), or any of the rights to Iron Man…just Jo. She's mine.

Tony took the stairs two at a time. The building smelled of growing things, soil and life. It wasn't a smell he was used to, but it seemed to make the air warmer and thicker. The building was set up like a college dormitory, with hall bathrooms and names on the doors instead of numbers. On each floor the walls changed colors, from a deep blue to olive green to terra-cotta to bold red, where he finally stopped.

He checked himself and knocked on the door made of a solid wood, deep in color, and marked "Joanna." A call came from inside, and then a burst of cluttered noise.

"Dammit!" There was another clang and the door swung open violently. "Yea- Tony?" A woman stood there in a tank top and jeans. She had a long, pleasant face rounded by a halo of dark brown hair and marked with a look of speechlessness.

"Hey babe, what's up? Mind if I come in?" He wedged past her and into the apartment. The air was thick with life and all visible surfaces were cluttered with hydroponics and solar stills. A solar generator hummed in the corner with wires trailing out a window, thrust open in spite of the July heat. A warm breeze fluttered over the papers on a corner desk.

He finally faced her. She was warm and her skin smeared with dirt. Her hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, already falling out. It was obvious she wasn't the same spirited twenty-something he once knew. Now she was a spirited thirty-something and just as desirable.

But her face was turned into a scowl, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I need a favor."

"How did you find me?"

"It's not a big thing, you'll like it. Right up your alley," he cast another glance at the hydroponics.

"I don't want you here."

"You remember the arc reactor development?"

"What? No. No, no. I don't work for you anymore. I quit, remember? I'm done."

"I remember you quit," he narrowed his eyes, his mouth drawn into a line, but then the look lifted. "That's why it's not a job, it's a favor, just a favor."

"No, I don't want to help you. It's over. I'm not doing it."

"It's rude to turn down something before you hear it."

"I'm not freelancing my ideas for your weapons."

"It's not about the company, it's a personal thing-"

"I bet it is," she crossed her arms.

"Listen to me. It's not for the company- which doesn't manufacture weapons anymore, in case you hadn't stuck your head outside in the past six months- it's for me."

"Ooooh! For _you_. Well that's a different thing then." She shut the door and crossed to hold down the fluttering papers.

"Don't be a bitch, I asking for a little help, that's all."

"Me being the bitch, that's a new one."

"Hey, you're the one who left the company and wiped the servers of two years of work. We should have sued your ass for that. You're lucky you have a career at all."

"Did you come here just to bully me?" She got close to his face and he could smell her over the wood and dirt of the apartment. An organic, human scent.

He cocked an eyebrow, "Well, we could come to a compromise."

She met Tony at MIT- not while he was in school there, while he was giving a talk years later. At an excitable 23, she was intrigued by the way Stark technology was so far ahead of any competitor. The internship came a year later, and then a full-time job. She was sleeping with Tony on a regular basis, between helping him test ideas in the workshop. It was her main project to develop the finalized plans for the full-sized arc reactor when she stumbled across the early plans for the Jehrico on Tony's personal servers and finalized her falling out.

Before the government could approve of the application, she set fire to the warehouse where the prototypes were contained and released a targeted virus to the server files. It was a fiasco, with Tony at the center. Despite the lost data, the prototype was redeveloped in little under a year, but she never returned to Stark Industries.

Tony had fought not to sue her, although the company was claiming millions in damages. In reality he had everything he needed in his head and all plans went along with little problem. He was pissed, of course, but there had been little signs for the last few months of her employment that she was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the nature of the company, and with weapons systems at all. She was becoming more stand-offish about the weapons aspects of work, and openly hostile towards the people on that side of the company. The government tried to pursue her for arrest, but Stark Industries dropped all charges and she effectively disappeared from the radar.

She spent her first year in a small commune in Colorado, where the most modern technology was the ox-pulled plow. It was a small place, about fifty people, and far from a utopia. A constant smell of human odor pervaded, to almost disgusting degrees when indoors, and the winter was cold and bitter, but she survived and moved on that spring to Arizona where she lived out of her car and caught odd jobs on the side. It was a dangerous living but she learned to use everything she had.

Eventually she came back to Malibu to take a job with a solar panel plant and start developing more environmentally friendly sources of energy, a passion that began with the reactor. She had won a few in awards in the past three years for her hydrogen engine and compact solar still design, but she never went back to Stark Industries, and if you asked her why she left, she would have called it her "Peaceful Revelation." Tony called it 'going hippie.' He never quite understood.

But he could never turn down an old coital acquaintance. In the dim midday light of the bedroom, the arc reactor glowed cool. She sat straddling his stomach, tapping her fingers against it.

"Is it really an arc reactor? The reactor was a good idea, but unwieldy. Do you know what you could do with this technology?"

"Yeah, don't tempt me." He moved his hand away and swung her off of him.

She thumped lightly onto the bed and sat up, reaching for her underwear, "So, what else do you need me for?"

"Do I detect sarcasm?"

"What do you want?" she spat.

"I want you to help redesign this, actually." He tapped the metal in his chest.

She turned around, her eyes lit up for a moment and faded, "What for?"

"It still produces a plasmic discharge-"

"Oh god, in your _body_?"

"I'm glad you see my problem."  
"Well it's going to have to have some sort of waste, that's the way it was designed. It was just that the plasma is less detrimental than CO2 exhaust-"

"It smells too." She looked him in the eye, "You know, if that helps motivate you."

"Why'd you come to me?" She clipped her bra in the back and reached for her jeans. Tony watched her body disappear piece by piece like some backwards striptease. "Haven't you got someone at the company you can assign?"

"This is a little more personal than a cooperate assignment."

"Oh really, Iron Man?" She darted an eye at him lying on the bed.

"So you do watch the news? Good to know you're not as much of a hermit as you look." She swatted at him with a slight smile.

"Do you have a duplicate I can use? Or do you just want me to pull that one out?"

"Two, at the house. You know, just in case."

"You want me to come by?" she cocked an eyebrow this time.

"Well, since I have the high-tech workshop," he said, pulling himself up from the sheets, "I think it would work a little better if you have the resources you need."

She frowned, it had been awhile since she worked in Tony's shop and she preferred her home office, but for this project it might behoove her to do it. "I have to finish this project," she swept her arm towards the solar generator, "so maybe in a week?"

"Whenever you want, babe," he got up off the bed and began to pull on clothes. "I'll be there."


	2. Part 2

Title: Redesign This! (chapter 2)

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Tony Stark/Pepper Potts

Disclaimer: I don't own Pepper Potts or Tony Stark (although I wish I did), or any of the rights to Iron Man…just Jo. She's mine.

She pulled up at the house, curved and sleek and clean. It looked just the way it had eight years ago when she first saw it from the tinted windows of one of Tony's limos. She parked in the drive and walked up to the door. Jarvis sprang to life with a beep, "Hello madam, Mr. Stark has been expecting you." He was greatly improved since she last met him, complete with humanoid voice development.

She smiled, "Thank you, Jarvis."

The foyer, the living room, the bedroom to the left and kitchen behind her. It was the same layout, but the furniture was all new, beige, white, and streamlined and small quarter-circle stations glowed blue on the corner walls.

"Tony?"

No one answered. The house seemed deserted. "Jarvis?" she asked, "where is Tony?"

"Mr. Stark is currently at Stark Industries plant number four."

The house was deserted. She dropped her bag in the foyer and looked around. If the workshop was still in the basement she might be able to get started anyway. Tiptoing her way down the stairs, she met the familiar glass pane doors. From there, everything looked different. The benches had been moved and mechanical arms had been installed, looming like cranes over the worktables. She pined to get inside and look over all the upgrades.

There was a new glass keypad to her right, and she systematically tried all the old passwords. None worked. She stood outside the workshop longingly, and somewhere deep insider cursed Tony for his tendency for vague appointments.

"Jarvis, can you let me in?"

"I'm sorry madam, but this area is restricted."

She sighed and went back upstairs.

The house was almost sterile in its modern deco, but the waterfall made pleasant gurgles that echoed off the walls. It was nice enough, but it made her miss her apartment. She had always found it hard to work in Tony's stark environment, but that was half the joke, wasn't it?

She perused the house nonchalantly, peeking through all the old rooms, and then grabbing a beer from the fridge and lounging on the couch to wait for Tony to come back.

But it was Pepper who got there first. Jo had been sitting for about two hours, plucking on the electric guitar in the corner and surfing Tony's music collection, when the door clicked open and the clack of heels came from the foyer. She looked up, startled at being caught in the act, and waited like a deer in headlights for Pepper to see her, but she didn't.

"I need one order of Kung Po chicken and fried rice, and two egg rolls. Extra soy sauce. Thank you." She tapped the headphone in her ear and dropped the paper bags she was carrying on the kitchen counter. Huffing, she turned around to see a woman, wide-eyed, sitting on the sofa, casually slinging Tony's guitar. She almost screamed, but first she whipped out her pepper spray and yelled, "Don't move!"  
"Hi."

Pepper blinked, her defensive stance lessened. "Jo?"

"Um," Jo stood up and put the guitar back on the stand. She wavered for a moment, realizing the beer had hit her a little harder than she intended, and that she had forgotten to eat that morning. "Did Tony tell you I'd be coming by?"

"Are you alright?" Pepper put down the spray and hurried over to grab Jo's arm.

"Yeah, just, woah, a little woosey." She lowered herself back onto the sofa.

"Let me get you some water." As she wandered to the kitchen, Pepper called back over her shoulder, "Tony didn't say anything about you coming," the skepticism in her voice was palpable, "but I suppose he must have made some appointment for Jarvis to have let you in." She crossed to one of the corner stations and clicked the keys, muttering, "I wish he'd tell me when he does this."

Jo pressed her forehead, "He came over to my apartment last week and asked me for help on a project."

"Oh," Pepper clicked the station back into dormancy and crossed to hand her the water. "He's at the offices today."

"It's alright, I can wait." Jo took a few sips, feeling better immediately.

"I can't say when he'll be back, but you know him as well as I do."

Jo looked up as Pepper walked back towards the kitchen, "How've you been? You look good."

"Thank you, I'm alright. And you?" She paused, "Sabotage paying off?"

Jo sighed, "Get it out. You're angry, Tony's angry, the whole fucking company is angry. I did what I thought I had to do. I didn't stop anything, so there. No harm done. Get over it."

"Why did you say Tony invited you?" Pepper turned, giving Jo a piercing eye.

"He wanted help redesigning the reactor in his chest," she spat the words, like a key to a revealed secret.

"I see," Pepper turned back to the bags and began extracting a pile of small brown boxes. The women were silent until Pepper crossed the room with an armful of the boxes. "Do you want into the workshop? Come on."

Jo hopped up and followed the click of Peppers heals with the soft squeak of her Converse. Pepper tapped the keypad one handed and the door slid away. The immediate hum of machinery hit Jo, soft but pervasive.

Pepper set down the boxes in a pile one a nearby table and walked over to the workstation surrounded by screens. Bending down where Jo couldn't see, Pepper incited a whirr of machinery, then a soft clang, and rose with the blue glow of a miniature arc reactor showing between her fingers.

"Here's one of the extras. It's smaller than the one he has right now, but it should operate the same way."

Jo took the reactor from her tentatively, and Pepper closed the safe. "He uses the workstation over to the left," she pointed, "You can look over it now. I'll inform Tony you're hear when he arrives." She turned to leave.

"Thank you."

Pepper glanced back, "Hm," and clicked back up the stairs.

The beer was wearing off, and the glowing of the reactor intrigued Jo into focus. She sat at the workstation and analyzed the design. It was almost completely different from the full-scale model, and the fact that she could hold it in her hand testified to its compact power. She was almost afraid of taking it apart. If it operated the same way as a full size reactor, who knew what kind of explosion it could produce.

"Jarvis?" she asked, half expecting no answer.

"Yes madam."

"Does Tony have plans for the miniaturized reactor on his servers?"

"Yes madam."

"Can I see them?"

"I'm sorry, you are not authorized to access that information."

"Dammit." She didn't like working here. There was so much unidentified clutter, and Jarvis made her nervous in his new form (and even in his old one). She felt as if was laughing at her behind his interface-façade. Instead, she turned her focus back to the reactor.

After about an hour of examining the structure and the output, she was pretty well aware of how it worked. It was genius. All unnecessary parts were discarded, and it ran more efficiently than she could have imagined. It was as if she'd fallen into some alternate universe were utopian products were real. It was beautiful.

But it had to have a byproduct. She knew why it produced a plasmic discharge, and while the volume was less in a smaller model, she would have to redesign half of it to make it stop.

"Hey," she jumped. Tony came around behind her and looked over at the reactor. She hadn't even heard the door whirr open. "Pepper said you were here. Also that you helped yourself to a beer."

"Maybe I wouldn't have to if you kept appointments."

"What'd you figure out?"

"It's a nice design. I could power my whole apartment on this thing."

"What about the plasma?"

"You'd half to redesign it all. Or most of it. What do you want it to discharge? It'll have to be something. Hydrogen and water are big right now."

She turned around to look at him, and he twitched a smile and slid into the chair next to her.

"I can't compromise the design. It has to have the same energy output."

"The thing puts out energy like a nuclear power plant, do you really need that much just to power an electromagnet?"

"Short answer; yes."

She looked at him, he was hiding something. "Is it the suit? It's how you power the suit, isn't it? I'm not naïve."

"Looks like my big secret's out." The corner of his mouth twitched, "What can you do about the plasma?"

The Kung Po chicken was re-heated after an afternoon in the refrigerator and Jo sat feet up on the workstation, shoveling noodles from a box. Tony was leaning against the table, scooping the middle out of an egg roll with a pair of chopstick. They had been crowded around the screened workstation for hours analyzing diagrams.

"Maybe we're just thinking about it too much. Would an output valve work better to remove it? You've have to empty it periodically, but you could keep the same energy output."

"I don't like it."

"Well goddamnit, I don't know if we can keep this design. The discharge is intrinsic to the way it runs. You _know_ that."

"I thought as someone who helped build the original, you'd know we can do any damn thing we want."

"You can't defy the laws of energy conservation."

Tony had been staring at the screen. Now he dropped the roll into the trash and wiped his hands. Picking up a stylus, he transferred one of the designs to a holographic display when Pepper came down the stairs. She crossed the shop, "I'm going home. I need you to sign off on two Intellicrop orders." She handed him a clipboard and he scrawled a signature nonchalantly on the bottom.

"Already? What time is it?" He tapped the pen and handed it back to her.

"Almost ten," she replied, hiding a yawn with her arm. "You have a meeting at noon tomorrow with the shareholders. Do not be late for this one, please." She looked at him with a tired, pleading look.

"What, you don't trust me?" he smiled at her.

"No, not so much," there was a tension between them for a moment, and Jo watched as they stood a little apart. Tony wasn't smiling, but looking intently at a spot just above Pepper's eyes. Suddenly the mood broke and Pepper turned the clipboard back around. Tony blinked, "Is that all?"

"That's all. Goodnight Mr. Stark."

"Goodnight Miss Potts." Pepper turned, nodded to Jo, and clicked back up the stairs out of the workshop.

Jo whistled and leaned forward, "You have a thing for her."

Tony shook his head and turned back to her, unfolding his arms from the position he was in as he watched Pepper leave.

"What are you talking about, it's just friendly conversation. Completely professional."

Jo snorted and leaned back in the chair, feet propped on the table, "Yeah, looks like it."

"You're being irrational-"

"You've never had sex with her, have you?" Jo threw up an eyebrow over her glasses.

Tony fumbled with the stylus he was using and Jo laughed. "You haven't! You have it for her bad."

"She's my assistant-"

"Like that has ever stopped you. You can't be around a woman for ten seconds before imagining being on top of her. I'm surprised it took you this long."

Tony got up close to her face, "Well I could always imagine myself on top of you."

Jo snorted, "Oh, that's one of your worst pickup line yet," and cupping his face in her hands, she kissed him, moving to press her body against his. "She hates me, you know," she whispered in his ear.

Tony pulled away and looked at her, "You're kidding."

"You don't see the malice?" She kissed him on the cheek, "sorry Tony, but not tonight. I'd better go too." She kicked her feet off the table and rose.

He grabbed her around the waist, but she stiffened. "C'mon, not tonight."

He drew back, "You sure?"

"Yes." He seemed surprised, and a little sad, and she began to worry about what she was doing, but Tony was a big boy and could handle himself. "I'll be back again tomorrow, bright and early." She furrowed her eyebrows at him and then, "Get some sleep."

Tony left her at the door, feeling alone for the first time in recent memory. He didn't want to think about Pepper. Back in the workshop he grabbed a beer and sat down in front of the screens, letting the diagrams rotate in front of his vision, and tried not to think about the petiteness of Peppers hands.


	3. Part 3

Title: Redesign This! (chapter 3)

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Tony Stark/Pepper Potts

Disclaimer: I don't own Pepper Potts or Tony Stark (although I wish I did), or any of the rights to Iron Man…just Jo. She's mine.

Jo arrived early the next morning, coffee in hand, having drawn up a schematic in the early hours of the day. Jarvis let her in with a beep and she jumped down the foyer stairs to run into Pepper already working on a laptop. The television displayed stock tickers obscuring the screen in running reds and greens. Pepper turned, "Oh, hello. Tony's not up yet. Jarvis should wake him soon." She pursed her lips and turned back to her screen.

"Thanks," Jo put her bag down on the table and sat on the sofa next to Pepper's chair. "I know you don't like me being here."

"Hm," Pepper didn't turn.

Jo took a deep breath, "And that's fine." She paused, "I didn't sleep with him last night."

"I don't need to know about my bosses love life."

Jo leaned back and took a sip of her coffee. "Do you love him?"

Pepper stiffened and in a instant snapped the laptop shut, "This is none of your business." She rose in a quick instant.

"Wait," but Pepper was already gone.

Pepper had been working for Tony for about four months when Jo started coming by, just for an evening or two at first, then for a week at a time. She lived in the workshop and slept in Tony's bed. No one ever said anything about a relationship; it seemed just to be an arrangement of working and sex. Pepper got used to her, and after the first few weeks they began to get along well, both of them being new to Tony and the way he worked.

Despite herself, Pepper liked Jo, she was down-to-earth and unlike most girls she seemed to understand that Tony was never in a position of undivided attention. He was a man eternally in love with his work, and occasionally he would love a woman. It just happened that he paid attention to Jo longer, most likely because of Jo's involvement in his work.

For Jo's part, she liked Pepper too. She was organized and professional, and somehow she always knew just what everyone needed. Her honesty and her loyalty were something that came out in time. Jo was almost envious of her perceptiveness and her strength. She was almost always envious of Pepper.

She sat alone in the living room for awhile, sipping her coffee and feeling the knot in her stomach grow. All the excitement of a working schematic drained away. She finished her coffee, half-hoping Tony would wake up and she could finish the project and leave. Eventually she got up to throw the empty cup away and find Pepper, out on the balcony, back to the door, typing on the laptop again.

"Hey," Jo paused in the doorway, "I'm sorry."

"Hm," Pepper turned an ear, but didn't look up.

Jo furrowed her eyebrows, "I didn't mean to upset you, I just thought maybe I could help-"

"Thought maybe you could get Tony back?" Jo looked startled as Pepper swirled around to face her. "You can have him. Please, take him. It's obvious. It always was."

Pepper turned back to the computer and clicked it shut. "I'll wake him up so you can finish your project. He has a meeting a noon, you might have to hurry." She rose and skirted by Jo, bumping her arm roughly, and disappeared into the house where the faint hum of Jarvis' morning routine could be heard.

Jo stood on the balcony, shocked to silence at the chill in Pepper's tone. She didn't want Tony back. She didn't. If anything, she wanted Pepper to have Tony. Maybe she could settle him down, or something. Jo shook her head. The knot in her stomach tightened, this was going to be a bad day.

Tony was in the kitchen wearing pajama pants and nothing else, pouring what looked like a mixture of avocado mush and chocolate shake into a tall glass. Pepper was debriefing him on the day.

"Jo is here, but you have a meeting at the offices in roughly three hours." Tony looked up to spot Jo standing awkwardly in the corner.

"Morning sunshine." Jo frowned and Pepper scowled, looking down at the counter. "Got anything for me?"

Jo fished the flash drive out of her pocket and waved it around. "It should work. You can sue me if it doesn't."

The joke fell flat and the room remained silent. Pepper coughed and picked up the conversation, "I'll be in office. Please be ready today."

Tony looked down at her, flicked a smile, "Sure will," and patting her on the arm, came over to Jo. Pepper watched with a horrible mix of longing and sadness as Jo grabbed her bag and they descended into the workshop together.

Jo plugged the drive in and pulled up the schematics. "You realize the plasma only results when the reactor energy is exposed to air. Just encase it," she hit a few keys, bringing up the diagram. "It's a vacuum case. If you keep reactor within the vacuum it should confine the main current to the palladium and eliminate most, if not all, of the plasma."

Tony was leaned over the screen, face level with hers. She looked over to him in the light of the screen. He smirked and turned to her, "Let's do it. Jarvis, can you design a case fitted for the reactor?"

"Commencing measurements, sir." Jarvis began to spill out numbers until Tony raised a hand.

"Alright, alright, you don't have to tell me." He crossed the room and pulled the safe up from the floor of one of the workstations. Jo watched as he extracted one of the two glowing reactors and handed it to one of the robotic arm apparatuses. The safe disappeared back into the floor.

"Use a flexible non-conductive plastic. Can you built it?"

"Yes sir. Expected completion time is two hours."

"Vacuum the contents, please."

"Yes sir."

Tony turned to Jo, his face twitched with a smile. "Looks like success."

"Indeed," Jo responded with a smile. He got closer to her, and she turned to grab her coat off the back of the chair. "I'd better go. You have appointments to get to-"

Tony grabbed her arm, "Where are you running to? We have time."

She moved his arm away, "No, Tony, we don't." They were hard words and he looked angry.

"What's wrong with you? I haven't seen you in five years and here you are skirting off all the time."

"I didn't come here for a booty call, I just wanted to help-"

"No. That's never the way it worked." He folded his arms and stared, "Why are you here?"

She turned to him stunned, and then angry, "Ok, I wanted the sex. And I wanted to know you again. And-"

"And?" His voice was loud.

"And that's not going to happen because Pepper is in love with you, you idiot!" She stood up, shouting at him, "Can't you see it? She never left you, and it's not just because you're her boss. She _cares._ She cares about _you,_ and you're obviously interested in her. Stop playing games! It's not fair!"

Tony stepped back, blinking. She gathered her coat and bag, and pulled the flash drive out of place. Shaking, she tripped over the chair and stumbled angrily towards the door. Only then did she stop, breathing heavily, her whole being vibrating in anger.

She took a deep breath, "Tony." Looking back at him, standing shirtless and stunned among the consoles, she sighed "Try to love her. She's worth it, ok?"

Their eyes met for a moment, like battling wills, until Tony responded, "Ok," and she opened the door and left.


	4. Epilogue: Reunion

Title: Redesign This! (epilogue)

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Tony Stark/Pepper Potts

Disclaimer: I don't own Pepper Potts or Tony Stark (although I wish I did), or any of the rights to Iron Man.

Pepper walked into the workshop. Tony sat with his back to her on the couch, the television talking monotonously as he worked on something at the table.

"I'm going home."

Tony didn't respond, and so as she came around to face him. He looked up, "Why don't you like her?"

"What?"

"Why don't you like her? You girls used to get along. What happened?" He seemed genuinely confused and earnest. Pepper sat down on the sofa arm, clutching her purse in front of her.

"She left, Tony, she left the company in ruins. That's not fair, no matter who you are, much less someone so close."

"You hate her because she did what she thought was right?"

Pepper sighed, but Tony stood up, "Does that mean you hate me? Because I did what I thought was right. I hurt the company and I put myself in danger."

"No!" She looked up at him, sensing the situation was getting away from her. She sighed, "I just, I don't know why. It's a woman thing, ok?"

He looked up past her, "No it's not."

"Tony," she watched him walk across the workshop, back up like an angry animal. He dropped the reactor he was carrying at one of the consoles. After a few taps he leaned back into the dental chair and reached down to remove the reactor in his chest.

"What are you doing?" Pepper was up and across the room in a moment, holding the glowing blue circle that a moment before had been keeping him alive.

"I'm replacing it. That one," he pointed to one roughly the same size, placed beside the console. Pepper picked it up to find it encased in a thin plastic sheeting so clear it was barely perceptible. She handed it to him.

He flipped it over and pulled the cord out to its full length. It was short, or shorter than usual, and as he reached into the socket to connect it to the base plate, it came up short. His hand couldn't reach. He looked over to Pepper, and then silently handed her the reactor.

She gently plugged to cord in and pressed the reactor into place, turning it clockwise and waiting for it to click.

"There's no goo."

"Yeah, the casing should prevent that now." He tapped on the circle to make sure it was in place, and then looked up at Pepper. "Thank you. I never say thank you, but I'm saying it now. Thanks."

Pepper smiled, and then blinked. "I don't hate her, it's just hard to have someone come back, after so long."

"Then I guess I'm lucky you never left." There was a hesitant moment when they stared at each other, this time with no one around. Pepper stood close by his chair as he reached out and took her hand. Pepper looked down at it as her face became red and after a moment she stepped gently away.

"Will that be all Mr. Stark?"

"Yes Miss Potts."


End file.
